Two former military policemen and five other members of the so-called ”blue light gang” were convicted on numerous charges resulting from a series of robberies and murders in the Pretoria High Court on Monday.
A security guard and a policeman were killed, five cars hijacked, a woman abducted, numerous firearms robbed and more than R300 000 taken in a series of hijackings and robberies between September 2000 and August 2001.
Acting Judge Piet van der Byl said the crimes were well planned and executed with almost military precision. In some cases, military weapons and gear were used in the robberies. Hijacked cars and stolen firearms were also used.
He convicted military police sergeant Karools Olyn (34) on 14 charges, including nine of robbery and one of murder.
Military policeman Sipho Rooseveldt Mpila (30) was convicted on 10 charges, including one of murder.
Taxi driver Stefaans Tlhakanye (29) was found guilty on 14 charges, including two murders and his girlfriend Florence Grootboom (25) was convicted on three robbery charges.
Carletonville taxi driver Patrick Temane (29) was convicted on nine charges, including the two murders. Zola Mahlatshi (39), who is unemployed, was found guilty on three robbery charges and one of abduction, and Carletonville hawker Phillip Malatsi (26) was convicted on nine charges.
Van der Byl accepted the evidence of an accomplice Ben Mogwase, who worked for a security company and supplied information for several of the robberies to members of the gang. Mogwase, who was granted indemnity from prosecution, implicated several of the accused in the crimes.
The judge rejected the gang’s evidence that they were innocent, had never taken part in any of the robberies and had never met Mogwase.
He also accepted confessions and statements made to the police by several of the accused, rejecting their claims that they were assaulted and forced to confess by the police.
He also rejected claims that identity parades, at which victims identified some of gang members, had been ”rigged”.
The trial continues on Tuesday. – Sapa